Ammu-Nation

Ammu-Nation is an American public firearms sales company which was founded in 1963. The store was founded with the goal of being patriotic and political, and its stores were often adorned with American and Confederate flags to show their right-wing political commitments. Ammu-Nation opened a chain of stores in major cities across the country, including New York City, Miami, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and San Francisco, and they sold military hardware and weapons; during the 1990s, they sold Gulf War surplus supplies in California and Nevada. During the 2010s, the company variously advertised itself as an ammunition store, a gun club, hunting & fishing goods store, a guns & survival equipment store, and a sporting goods store, and it branded itself as "the store leading the fight against communism".

The store chain often found itself surrounded by legal troubles due to its connection to spikes in violent crime rates in 1984, 1986, 1992, 1998, 2002, 2008, 2009, and 2013. The store's sale of fully-automatic weapons was limited due to the Hughes Amendment of 1986, which outlawed the sale of such weapons if they were made after May 1986. The store also sold destructive and explosive devices such as grenades, C4s, RPGs, proximity mines, and other military devices which were highly illegal, although they used their military surplus brand as a cover for selling such items. In 2008, the Mayor's Office of New York City shut down the chain's stores in the city as a result of strict gun control laws, and efforts were made to close down the chain in other states. These actions forced criminals to buy weapons from underground gun stores or from the trunks of vehicles, and the brand shifted its operations online in 2009, as well as having an outlet in the city's gun club. However, the chain continued to prosper during the 2010s, and its stores could be found all across California. It sold many illegal military-grade weapons to the public, and these guns were often sold without any background checks, allowing for criminals to commit thousands of murders in Los Angeles County and Blaine County.